Hulk (Vol. 3 ) #3 — Nick Peron

Mar 16

Mar 16 Hulk (Vol. 3 ) #3

Who Shot the Hulk #3

A secret organization has recreated the Abomination and sent him to destroy Bruce Banner, who has been rendered severely handicapped after gunshots to the head. This has led to a battle with the Hulk. While Maria Hill tries to get a local real estate agent to safety, three agents of the organization attacks. At first, it appears that Maria is using Buddy as a human shield, however, she is merely doing this to protect him from a sonic device she unleashes that incapacitates the three attackers. After Buddy runs for cover, Maria unmasks one of her attackers and injects him with a drug that wakes him up, incapacitates him, and prevents him from lying. When the man wakes up, she demands to know who is responsible for this attack.

Meanwhile, outside, the Hulk and the Abomination continues to fight, devastating the entire town. Before Hill can get answers from her attackers, they begin to teleport away. Despite this, Maria manages to get ahold of one of the teleportation wristbands, but her assailants escape. With the Hulk having to battle a foe that is mindless and more powerful than him, Maria calls backup. Just as the Hulk begins losing ground in the fight, Captain America, Iron Man, Captain Marvel and Sunspot of the Avengers arrive on the scene to lend the Hulk a hand. As the Avengers attack the Abomination, the battle is being watched by the man who put all these plans into motion. When his subordinates question his ability to destroy the Hulk, he points out that he faced the Hulk on the day the monster was born. Since then he has been studying gamma radiation and has become the world's greatest gammacrinologist. As such, when he recreated the Abomination he added something that the Avengers will never expect.

Back at the scene of the battle, Captain Marvel and Iron Man blast the Abomination with full power. While Captain America checks on the Hulk, he sends Sunspot to look for survivors to bring them to safety. Cap is joined by Maria Hill as the Hulk reverts back to human form, and he demands to know where the Hulk has been in the last while. When Hill is reluctant to answer, Captain America realizes that she had known where Banner was the entire time. Meanwhile, Iron Man realizes the reason that the Abomination has not been fighting back is due to the fact that he has been increasing his gamma radioactivity, bringing it up to a highly toxic level. While not far away, Banner wakes up screaming in agony. Maria Hill tells Captain America to take it easy on Bruce as he is suffering from severe brain damage. However, they are both shocked when Banner appears to be back to normal intelligence, but he doesn't know who Maria or Cap are. Even more troubling, Banner begins flipping between his normal self and having amnesia. The amnesiac version of Banner doesn't believe the Hulk is real and tells people to leave him alone.

By this point, the Abomination has fought off the other three Avengers and resumes his hunt for the Hulk. As Captain America scrambles to get control of the situation, Bruce -- between spates of jibberish -- insists that he should turn into the Hulk to save his friends. Hill protests against this, pointing out that the Hulk's healing factor might be repairing his brain, but not his mind. With the Avengers losing the battle against the Abomination, Banner runs into the fray, turning into the Hulk along the way. The Abomination manages to overpower the Hulk and beats him senseless. Maria orders the Hulk to stand down, saying they'll get help. However, the Hulk refuses to surrender, and when he pulls himself out of the rubble he is carrying Captain America's shield.